Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

Trailrunner7 writes "One of the attackers who has been targeting Syrian anti-government activists with malware and surveillance tools has returned and upped the ante with the use of the BlackShades RAT, a remote-access tool that gives him the ability to spy on victims machines through keylogging and screenshots. The original attacks against Syrian activists, who are working against the government's months-long violent crackdown, were using another RAT known as Xtreme RAT, with similar capabilities. That malware was being spread through a couple of different targeted attacks, including one in which activists were directed to YouTube videos and their account credentials were then stolen when they logged in to leave comments. That attack continued with the installation of the RAT, giving the attacker surreptitious access to the victims' machines, enabling him to monitor their activities online. Now, researchers say that at least one attacker who is known to be involved in these targeted attacks also is using the BlackShades RAT in a new set of attacks."

I have to question the accuracy of this submission; If they're directed to YouTube and that is the source of the drive-by infection, then that means that everyone who uses YouTube globally would be vulnerable to this, not just Syrian dissidents. It would also require the cooperation of Google; Which in turn means this is tandamount to an admission that the US government is helping Syria track down it's political dissidents. Historically, we have invested a lot of intelligence resources to help those disside

We all know Israel just want to keep those dictators so it sent out her idiots to spread propaganda.....

That makes even less sense than what you usually see from the average Israel hater. So let me see if I get this straight, Israel, and in turn Jews, the most prosecuted religious and ethnic group that we've seen in the last 2000 years, has a vested interest in...oppressing themselves? Okay there. That's why in every defensive war they've ever fought, they've given up more than what they've gained in order to secure peace.

So Israel, is supporing Assad you say? An ally of Iran and a state supporter of terrorist attacks against Israel (Hezbollah, among others)? Seems to be Israel has no reason at all to support Assad. Sure the rebels might exactly be friendly either, but they can hardly be worse. No matter who is in power, weapons are going to get smuggled into Lebanon. Sunni may not like Shiite, but they both hate the Jews and are willing to cooperate when convenient. Iran supplies and funds Hamas and other Sunni groups

The fuck are you on about? Assad supports Hezbollah and is an ally to Iran. Why on earth would Israel support Syria. If you want to know who IS supporting Syria, look to Iran, China, and Russia, and the latter two only because of oil from and weapons sales to Syria and Iran. It's in Israel's interests to back the rebels if anybody, but won't do so publicly because in the Arab world, if a Jew is on your side, you lose all credibility. As much has been said by the current administration in Israel. The r

This is a propaganda war as much as anything, and I don't have any evidence to believe either side.

Comments like this really, really piss me off. The thing is, you *do* have information, or rather, you have information if you want it. You have what the Syrian people do not have- free access to the internet- which means that you can go to Google News, type in something like "Syria Internet Surveillance" and in a second have all the information you want, and then think critically about what it all means. There are lots of articles about Syria spying on its citizens, there are dozens of articles about Weste

This is a fantastic question, and indeed, the first question that ought to be asked in any discussion about Syria.

First of all, the idea that a revolution in a Muslim country would be anything even close to the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia (which resulted in Czech & Slovakia amicably separating) is one of the most inane assumptions anyone could make of Muslims. In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring started, this [adnkronos.com] is [ansamed.info] what [ansamed.info] is [ansamed.info] going [alarabiya.net] on [ansamed.info] today [eurasiareview.com] - from a country that was always assumed to be very Westerni

I took a look at TFA, and saw exactly what I expected: the malware is specifically designed to attack computers running Windows. Now, I'll admit that that's reasonable, considering how big Microsoft's market share is, but it does lead to an interesting suggestion: get the dissidents to move to Linux, at least as dual-boot, and only use Linux for their political activities. Not because Linux is immune to malware, but because it's immune to the specific malware they need to be concerned about. And, if they

Yeah, I kinda figured that. However, the distro does come with the appropriate fonts by default, and the maintainers would probably see nothing wrong with adding an Arabic spin. The important thing, IMO, is getting them away from using a vulnerable OS for their political activities.